“Pumpkin is the New Bacon” according to New York Magazine. I suspect that as pumpkins proliferate nationwide at this time of year, and not just in the trendy Brooklyn green markets with all their artisanal green groceries and boutique breweries. Between Halloween and Thanksgiving, we all have to deal with the mounting supplies of pumpkins. (https://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/pumpkin-2012-10/)
Halloween is over, the Jack O’Lanterns are mush and we have almost a month to prepare for the onslaught of Thanksgiving dinner. I decided to explore some avenues that didn’t involve simply baking pumpkin bread as a solution for my surplus pumpkins. Because as tasty it can, isn’t it more imaginative to be foisting pumpkin chili off on the kids? Can’t we cook something subtle and sophisticated? My group suffers mightily through a ceremonial pumpkin pie that I bake at Thanksgiving – the smell reminds me of my childhood. They play with their silverware and smear the whipped cream around on the ancestral china. I can hear their evil taste buds jonesing for the flourless chocolate cake that is stashed in the fridge. I can’t say that I blame them. But one must honor our Colonial forebears in every way one can, mustn’t one? So we should opt for a new holiday – Leftover Pumpkin Day.
You can start the day off with this great recipe from The Smitten Kitchen (what a great blog that is!) for Pumpkin Waffles. https://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2007/11/pumpkin-waffles/ Who could refuse these waffles? They would be delightful for a Thanksgiving breakfast when the relatives start piling in, and you have an annoyingly large amount of pumpkin purée left over from baking the symbolic pumpkin pie.
This is chili is clever, but a little too diabolical a conceit, I fear. It might be a good way to use up the leftovers, and to get some healthy pumpkin into young bellies, but I doubt if I could have pulled the wool over the eyes of my youngsters. They claim they are still deeply scarred because I used spinach in their tacos way back when, instead of crunchy iceberg lettuce, when they were tots.( I don’t really like the mommies who sneak veggies into food, she typed, as she felt not one jot of remorse for those tacos…) Chili, Pumpkin Style: https://www.pumpkinnook.com/cookbook/recipe11.htm
If you have the inclination and a little extra help, then you could whip up these Pumpkin Garlic Knots to go with the chili. We firmly believe in the goodness of garlic, and in our pursuit of using up the pumpkins. https://www.handletheheat.com/2010/10/pumpkin-garlic-knots.html It is always nice to have a huddle in a warm kitchen on a cool and gray day, and kneading dough is a very sociable activity. We bonded through the fleeting elementary school years by making pizza dough on Friday afternoons, in preparation for Friday night pizza dinners. It was a comforting routine.
You could really go to town and have a whole meal of pumpkin-based courses. After the chili and the garlic knots you deserve to have a sweet and easy dessert. This recipe, amazingly enough, has only two ingredients. This is my kind of baking. Forgive the cake mix, but I always have a box or two on the shelf, just in case. There is always the chance of a cake emergency, it is still hurricane season, after all… Two Ingredient Pumpkin Spice Cookies:https://www.pbfingers.com/2010/10/07/two-ingredient-pumpkin-spice-cookies/
And after a busy day of baking and chili-creation, don’t you deserve a little treat? Sit down next to the fireplace and have someone mix up a little cocktail for you. You worked hard, and you deserve to enjoy the fall harvest season, too. Pumpkin Caipirini: https://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Recipes/Cocktails-Alcohol-402/Pumpkin-Caipirini-1494.aspx
If that seems a little too sweet or complicated, you can always celebrate with a good Samuel Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale. Which, by golly, would also be great with that chili! https://www.mandatory.com/2012/10/11/the-best-pumpkin-cocktails-and-beers/#photo=4 A perfectly pumpkin day. And Sam Adams might also be a good Thanksgiving beverage. Who really needs Beaujolais Nouveau when there is a tasty and well-themed ale available?
“We cannot make events. Our business is wisely to improve them.”
– Samuel Adams
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